Poll: Don’t Models Belong on Magazine Covers?

Lilit dropped an excellent gallery today, of actresses we’d like to ban from magazine covers. But scrolling through and seeing images of Harper’s, Vogue and Elle, I couldn’t help but be reminded of an even more fundamental annoyance than Lauren Conrad on the cover of anything:

Why aren’t models on the cover of fashion magazines?

(Granted, Lauren Conrad isn’t gracing a lot of fashion covers and thus she’s not putting any fashion models out of work. Frankly, she’s not really distinguishable from the generic anonymous blonde cover models Cosmo would use otherwise)

But with Jessica Alba’s on the cover of the latest Elle! A model could be there! These days, models are so absent from covers (in America) that it’s a huge deal if they land one.

The obvious reason for this is magazines with actresses on the cover sell better. For a bunch of reasons, but namely, public interest in non-supermodels isn’t really there. And actresses are practically as thin as models anyway.

Still, I can’t help but feel models are just so much better suited to working collaboratively with a photographer to create an unforgettable image (like this arresting classic snap of Jean Shrimpton). So: